


the centre can(not) hold

by jaqhad (kyrilu)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, MayThe4th Treat, Mission Related, Pre-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23565247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrilu/pseuds/jaqhad
Summary: Leia recruits a death cultist and makes a bargain.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Rey
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11
Collections: May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Fanworks Exchange 2020





	the centre can(not) hold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frozensea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensea/gifts).



> May the Fourth be with you! A (slightly altered) take on your prompt: _Leia is determined to track down an old friend and wants to know why she didn't come to help them during the Battle of Crait. Rey insists to come along for Leia's protection._

“Sometimes I can still hear death in the wind like a song.”

The Xexto gestures her green limbs up at the mottled ceiling, as if she’s signaling the universe. “It’s still in me, apparently. I stopped on Hosnian Prime for Freerago's bantha steak before the cataclysm. Turns out it wasn’t a steak craving after all.” 

Glancing at Leia, Sister Six adds, “Before you ask, the Central Isopter went on a pilgrimage to Alderaan, too.”

“I wasn’t asking,” Leia says, sighing, taking a sip of the kessinnamon tea that Sister Six had brewed. She distantly remembers Luke telling her about the mad death-worshiping cult on Jedha. Maybe it’s a bad idea to approach a former death cultist about joining the Resistance, but Sister Six had been a member of one of the best strike teams in the Rebel Alliance, and these are desperate times. “What do you think of my offer?”

“I’ve been back to working the bounty hunting circuit these days,” Sister Six says, one of her arms scratching her hat. “Bail-jumping small fry. Petty thieves. My quick draw isn’t what it used to be, though it’d be nice to fight for a cause again.”

“We’re not just looking for muscle, Sister Six -- we’re looking to rebuild our intelligence branch. Of course, your blaster skills would be an asset.”

“Well, I’m in, General. I’ll let you know if any more unusual food cravings strike me in the future, eh?”

Leia sets down her cup of tea. “For the sake of the galaxy, I hope they won’t.”

* * *

“She’s coming with us?” Rey asks. She’s waiting outside the inn, staff crossed under her arms. Although her eyes warily scan the cityscape for interlopers, there’s fascination mixed in, as well. Leia suppresses a fond smile. 

“She’s coming with us,” Leia confirms.

“Not that I’m not flattered by the personal recruitment visit,” Sister Six says, “but why are you here on Nar Shaddaa, anyway? Not exactly the ideal place for virtuous rebels, especially top brass.”

“Truth be told - we have other business to attend to. We heard that you were in the neighborhood. We could use a hand.”

* * *

The skyslums of the Smuggler’s Moon are grimy and crowded. Neon billboards flash, advertising products and places. Slugs creep up the duracrete buildings like mynocks on a starship.

Two masked guards stand outside a towering grey dwelling. They part when Leia shows them a Resistance sign inscribed on flimsiplast. 

“Organa!” Grakkus exclaims. The Hutt scrabbles down from a large throne, his mechanical legs scuttling against the ground. “At last. I’m honored to properly meet you in person.”

As if he hadn’t demanded a face-to-face meeting with her in the first place.

Leia plasters on her steely diplomat face and regards him levelly. “Indeed. It’s an honor as well. You said in your holomessage that you were considering barring the Resistance from accessing Hutt hyperspace routes, even though you expressly agreed with Poe that we were allowed safe passage. I thought we had an understanding, Grakkus.” 

Grakkus waves his thick hand. “There is a limit to the favors I owe you and your people, General.” 

“Without me and my people, you’d still be behind bars." 

He snorts out a roaring grumble. “Has that debt not been reimbursed several times over? I’ve loaned ships -- I’ve sold rations and medical supplies at generous discounts -- and, like you said, opened our hyperspace lanes. I am not in the business of charity; it is _business_. All I ask is for you to make a better offer before I change my mind and alert the First Order.” 

Rey tenses at Leia’s side; Sister Six’s arms shift. Leia shakes her head a minute fraction.

“The First Order is as supportive of your collecting habits as the Empire.” Leia reaches into her cloak, her hands closing around smooth stones that clatter against each other. She opens them like an offering.

“You know that my brother was a Jedi,” she says. She feels a sharp pang over the past tense, but pushes on. “These are Jedi meditation stones. We’re willing to keep an eye out for old artifacts that might interest you.” 

The Hutt is silent for several seconds. His yellow eyes examine the stones, which are carved with elaborate ancient symbols. 

“Very well,” he says. “Leave the stones here. I will contact you if I hear leads about artifacts that require retrieval. I’ll also accept any more family heirlooms you might have stashed away. I expect to be presented with... payment… every standard month.”

“Two months,” Leia says. “The Resistance isn't private mercenaries or dealers, Grakkus.” 

“Two months.” He turns around, his cybernetic legs clunking underneath his weight. “Then I should mention that the Order has been alerted to your presence here.” 

Rey starts, “You--!”

“If you get away, the deal stands,” he says. “If you’re captured, I receive the reward on your bounties. It’s a win for me either way. You’d better start running.” 

Leia thinks: _I’m getting too old for this_. Gritting her teeth, she starts toward the door. “Rey. Sister Six. We’re leaving.” 

* * *

They zoom away from Grakkus’ palace onboard a speeder ‘borrowed’ from one of Grakkus’ guards. In the backseat, Sister Six is loading cartridges into a blaster with two arms and brandishing a blaster rifle with the other two.

At the wheel, Rey says, “I still wish we didn’t have to give Jedi artifacts to that Hutt. Couldn’t we use them for my training? And some of these things--they’re what Luke found in temples and archives. Shouldn’t we hold onto them, Master?” 

Rey addresses her as ‘Master,’ even though Leia isn’t a real Jedi. Only an informal teacher, passing on the lessons that Luke taught her, years ago. 

Leia remembers: It’s strange, the things that Luke says about lightning having to do with the dark side of the Force. On Ajan Kloss, as the humid rains fall and the storm clouds roil, she senses the Force thrilling through her, the meditation stones humming and shimmering--

She shakes the memory off. 

“Artifacts won’t make you a Jedi, Rey,” she says, looking at the stars, partly obscured by the lights of Nar Shaddaa. “It’s the Force that matters in the end.”

Blaster fire rings out in the night. Rey swerves the speeder out of the way, swearing underneath her breath. Cackling, Sister Six slips on her goggles. “I missed taking potshots at stormtroopers.”

There are half a dozen troopers on their tail riding speeder bikes. Sister Six’s blasters are spinning beams of scarlet, knocking out one, then another.

“Kid,” Sister Six says to Rey, “keep this thing steady, will you? You’re messing with my aim.” 

“I’m _trying_ to make sure we don’t get shot.” 

Eventually, they reach the port where the _Millenium Falcon_ is docked. Leia takes out her comlink--tells Chewbacca to be ready for take-off--and feels apprehension thick in her chest as the four remaining troopers press toward them.

Rey stops the speeder to a halt and springs out. Undeterred by an encroaching bike, she launches herself at a trooper, her staff whirling to unseat him.

Sister Six busies herself with the two troopers on their left, disabling the speeder bikes with well-targeted blasts. The troopers leap off their immobile bikes.

“Rey,” Leia says, when Rey returns beside her, “use the _Falcon_ ’s guns to take out their TIEs, in case they try to follow us.” The girl nods and dashes up inside the ship. The TIEs in question are docked a little ways away from the _Falcon_.

Sister Six is still occupied with the two troopers, who’d gotten up from where they fell and are exchanging fire with her. 

That leaves the sixth trooper. 

Leia hadn’t left all of the meditation stones with Grakkus. There is one left in her pocket, and as she sees the last trooper emerge from around the corner--

She reaches for the well inside of her. 

The stone soars through the air and rips through the speeder bike engines. An explosion bursts, orange flames rippling, and the trooper sails off his bike and crashes to the ground. 

“I saw that,” Rey says, when Leia joins her in the _Falcon_ , Sister Six in tow. “What happened to only the Force making you a Jedi?” 

“When the situation calls for it,” Leia replies. 

The _Falcon_ takes to the sky and surges into hyperspace. Chewie roars from the co-pilot’s seat next to Rey. 

"Really?" Rey says, blinking. "A Hutt used to rule over Jakku -- Niima Outpost is named after her. The old timers said that she was pretty tough." 

"I did," Leia acknowledges. "But you can't slay every Hutt. Diplomacy is important, Rey." 

"I suppose that means I can't go around calling you Master Huttslayer."

* * *

“Pawning off priceless artifacts to a _criminal_ ,” Beaumont says, his brow furrowed. “I wish I’d been assigned under your command under better circumstances, General.” 

Leia lets out a quiet hum. “I thought Magpie would be relieved to have you off her hands.” Beaumont Kin is a new recruit -- a historian who had decided to join the Resistance sometime after the cataclysm -- and he’d previously been stationed in the outpost on Batuu, undergoing intelligence training led by Vi Moradi.

Not that he was much of an operative. According to Vi, he had been more interested in studying the Jedi and Sith artifacts displayed in the Black Spire Outpost shops rather than improving his blaster abilities. 

Rey is staring at the holo-map that Beaumont had pulled up -- the potential location of a temple dedicated to the Force -- curiosity making her eyes bright. “When are we going?” 

“I’m still calculating the exact coordinates,” Beaumont says, with a gusty exhale. “Korin Aphra’s research can be rather dense. He was hyperfocused on the Ordu Aspectu, even though there are other insights he made that can tell us more about the Force. The prophecy of Lorezai likely has nothing to do with the Eternal Rur, but instead with the tombs of Delphen, which are described in the _Chronicles of Brus-bu_ \--”

“Please make him stop,” Poe mutters. “He’s been like this all day.” 

“Every hour since 0700,” Finn affirms.

Beaumont frowns. "This is the solution to your Hutt problem, isn’t it?”

“I wish we didn’t have to devote our resources and time to this,” Poe says. “We’re rebels, not Grakkus’ lackeys.” 

Leia says, “Think of it as keeping potential weapons out of the First Order’s hands. And we need those hyperspace lanes, Poe.”

A beat, then he nods. “You’re not wrong. We need those routes to transport supplies across the Rim to help local insurgency efforts."

Poe glances at Rey, who is now levitating the last meditation stone above her palm -- Leia had given it to her on the _Falcon._ Finn is attempting to snatch it out of the air, but she’s making it spin and dart out of the way. "Still," he continues. "This stuff is a bit out of my depth.” 

“You have no idea,” Leia says, vaguely remembering the stories that Luke had told her. “And frankly, I don’t, either. I suppose we’ll be making this up as we go along.” 

“Trust in the Force,” Rey says, the stone falling back on her palm. “Right, Master?” 

“Exactly.” 

* * *

Outside the Resistance base, Sister Six is on her knees in the long grasses, her hands angled toward the stars above Pacara. 

“Ah," she says. “Evening prayers. Although I was excommunicated from the faith, I guess old age has made me more pious. Listen, General, don’t you hear it?” 

Leia hears something in the wind. There _is_ music. Whatever it is, it isn’t death.


End file.
